Sergio Agüero is likely to be sidelined for at least two weeks – ruling him out of the Manchester derby on 25 March – due to his latest hamstring problem, Manuel Pellegrini has said.

The Manchester City striker will not know the full extent of the damage until Saturday, when he will receive the results of a scan.

The 26-goal striker failed to emerge for the second half of City's 2-1 Champions League defeat at Barcelona on Wednesday evening, after feeling the problem before the break.

Agüero was featuring in only a third match following more than four weeks out due to a hamstring injury suffered in the 5-1 win over Tottenham Hotspur on 29 January.

That was the last occasion on which any of Pellegrini's front-line strikers scored, with Edin Dzeko also doing so. Álvaro Negredo was last on the scoresheet on 21 January and Stevan Jovetic managed a sixth goal of an injury-plagued debut season on 15 February.

City stand nine points behind the leaders, Chelsea, though they have played three matches fewer.